A Niti Aayog report on skilling has got the country worked up by throwing up the alarming estimate of 8.7 crore Indians aged 15-29 who are neither employed, nor engaged in education or training. This is indeed worrying, as the group forms the core of the working-age population and accounts for almost a quarter of the youth in that age bracket. For a global comparison, about a fifth of those aged 15-24 are counted in a similar category. Although the Niti Aayog clarified on Tuesday that the number should not be read as a measure of joblessness, it may not be the most worrying finding in the report.
That dubious distinction goes to India’s skilling landscape. Sample this: only 8.25 percent of graduates work in roles matching their qualifications, while graduate unemployment stands at 13 percent. Every other informal worker misses out on skilling citing lack of awareness of the right programme. The jobs scarcity is underscored by the fact that between November 2024 and July 2025, the report states, as many as 1.86 crore applications were received for just 55,000 government posts.
It has shown that only one in 12 secondary and higher secondary institutions offers vocational subjects aligned with the National Skills Qualification Framework, against the National Education Policy 2020 target of exposing half of all learners to vocational programmes by 2025. The government has launched several skilling programmes and claims to have trained 7.6 crore individuals since 2014-15. However, by its own admission, awareness of these programmes remains abysmally low. Affordability remains another roadblock, heightened by a mix of direct costs, forgone income and limited access to high-quality options.
The report offers roadmaps for imparting skills. The key reforms it recommends include universal employability and entrepreneurship skills from Grade 6 through Grade 12, greater public-private partnerships, standalone skilling programmes and enabling learning alongside earning. However, past experience shows that implementation gaps and institutional inefficiencies have been major impediments to achieving such goals, despite successive government efforts.
At a broader level, skilling cannot be reduced to a certificate programme. It has to encompass the all-round development of hard and soft skills. And this requires not just a buoyant economy that can create jobs, but also a robust education system capable of preparing young people for them.